With the development of Virtual Machine (VM) technology, functions of conventional network devices may be implemented through VMs.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a process for virtualizing a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) entity in conventional technology. As shown in FIG. 1, functions of the PCRF entity are entirely virtualized in the conventional technology, to form a PCRF VM. Further, in a case that there are multiple PCRF VMs, a virtualization switch (SWITCH) may be responsible for routing among the multiple PCRF VMs.
However, it is difficult to flexibly configure a VM when extending performances of a PCRF VM in the conventional technology, thereby the cost is high and the cost effectiveness is low.